The user of security credentials to access data and/or functionality on a computing device is known. The security credentials can take the form of a password, a personal identification number, a token, etc. In order to access the data and/or functionality, a user provides the security credentials to authenticate that the user is, in fact, the person that is authorized to access the data and/or functionality.
Some applications request that a user select one or more security credentials and then control access to data and/or functionality upon subsequent presentation of those security credentials. These applications theoretically provide more protection of the data and/or functionality as the credentials are not stored elsewhere, but bear the risk that, if those security credentials are forgotten, access to the data and/or functionality may be unrecoverable. In many cases, security credentials must be entered to access the operating system of a computing device. When this security credential is forgotten, most, if not all, functionality and/or data on the computing device may be very difficult and/or expensive to recover.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel method and system for recovering a security credential.